New Xbox 360 Elite holiday bundle and Wireless Controller Game Pack announced
We'd been hearing that Microsoft had a new Xbox 360 holiday bundle in the works, and here we go: $299 will nab you an Elite, Lego Batman, and Pure. Not a bad deal -- and if you already have a 360, you can score a new controller, Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2, Lumines LIVE!, Bomberman LIVE! and Ms Pac-Man for another $60. The new Elite pack should be shipping to retailers today, but you'll have to wait until November to snag the controller bundle. Now if only Microsoft would see fit to bundle in some freaking WiFi, we'd be all set.
























I think it's a backhanded slap to have your game included in an XBOX bundle. That's a tip off to consumers that your game kind of sucks.
so forza 2 sucked? (last years bundle)
While Batman Lego should probably be replaced with something else, Pure was loved by alot of gamers and score of 85 from Metacritic: http://www.metacritic.com/games/platforms/xbox360/pure?q=pure
Actually, the Lego Batman inclusion will probably get my brother-in-law to toss the 64 and buy the 360 for him and his 9 year old son. And my other brother-in-law loves racing games and covets a 360 -- and his birthday is in October. Hmm.
It isn't a dumb idea to suspect they'd package crap games with a system bundle -- I just don't see it this time around.
Oh and Combat for the Atari 2600 was ba...oh wait...
yeah and halo 3 and fable 2 sucked......oh wait they didn't....
They did a bundle with 2 games for the original Xbox that included JSRF. That game most definitely did not suck.
Lego Batman and Pure Elite for the kids....
Modern Warfare Elite for the Adults....
I don't see what bad here?
Too true. God knows I never play Mario Bros. or Duck Hunt 20 years later...all the time.
Maybe that's just for the PS3, I got a 40GB that came bundled with Spiderman 3 and Transformers the Game. The game sucked more than a Dyson.
yeah n****
http://6.media.tumblr.com/9loo5gbqclor3fumGMNbBN9Po1_500.jpg
it's a dyson
I don't care so much for the Lego Batman, but indeed bundled Wi-Fi would be fantastic. I'd buy one in a heartbeat if it had wifi with it.
Im an Xbox fan and even i think the PS3 is better value now.
Microsoft are going to have to come up with something better than a discounted Elite. No bundle, with any combination of crappy games youll only play once, will work.
The PS3 was revitalized with the Slim, the 360 seems to be stagnating,
I agree, the only thing thats stopping me, is the extra $100 WiFi adapter!
Pure is actually a pretty good game but not a "system seller." I hate the Lego games though. The games that came bundled with the PS3 were great games. I don't think the Xbox needs a re-design right now; it is too late in the product cycle and they don't really need it.
Pure's actually a very fun, gorgeous game.
It blows my mind every time I hear people talk about using wifi on a gaming console. Now that Engadget is on the bandwagon, they have lost a lot of credibility.
Wifi is the worst possible idea for gaming console connectivity. For a medium (gaming) that requires split-second timing, why on earth would you use such an unreliable and slow internet connection?? What about Netflix (or any other streaming content)? Does anyone really think they will get acceptable quality/performance out of a video stream when using a connection with HALF (at best!!) the bandwidth??
Engadget, get off the "consoles need wireless" bandwagon.
Everybody else, use a wired connection.
J
I agree!!! Wifi should only be used as the last resort in gaming. Even my wired 10mb connection lags sometimes but then again its charter.
DUDE SERIOUSLY ? PAY FOR A BETTER SPEED AND YOU WOULDN'T HAVE THAT PROBLEM ! STOP USING CLEARWIRE! I USE WIFI ALL THE TIME HAVE NOOO PROBLEMS !!
If you can't figure out how to make wifi reliable and quick, that's your problem, not engadget's.
Even the PSP and the Wii have wifi.
It works great. My pings on warhawk are low and the action is awesome. Games like Wipeout, which require lightning fast reflexes, are great on wifi.
MS charges a ridiculous price for wifi... it should be free in my opinion, but that's between you and them. It's a hard fought console war, and MS should up their game. Even after billions and billions of dollars lost, they have less than a third of this generation's market... and that's the best they've ever done.
Not to mention it costs a total of $20 to run a pre-made 50ft CAT5e/6 cable... much less than either "official" wireless adapter.
It'd cost about as much as the N adapter to do it the right way (if you have to buy all the tools, and don't have any CAT5e/6 cable sitting around). The only place I could imagine not being able to run cable because it's ugly is in an apartment with hardwood floors. Otherwise you can run the cable around the perimeter of the room and stuff it under the carpet, or buy white Ethernet cable and use coax staples...
Wireless G I could see your point but Wireless N is not bad. Do you use a wired controller?
I don't think you understand how fast WiFi actually is. It supports up to 54 Mbps (22 Mbps throughput), which is several times faster than the average internet connection. Most people get 6-8 Mbps on cable, I personal have 20 Mbps (FIOS) and I'm able to download at full speed over WiFi. It certainly isn't a limiting factor in gaming at this point. I do agree that it isn't as reliable, but for most people that isn't an issue.
@ATTSCOTT
Pay for a better speed??
Speed isn't the issue, reliability is. N-rated routers can match cabled speeds (under optimal conditions), but NOT their reliability. When I am playing something that requires, split-second timing (SF4) I get plenty of lag and delay even when using a wired connection. I don't want anything to cause additional issues.
FYI, when I play SF4 I use a wired arcade stick.
If the console is sitting so close to your router that reliability might not be an issue, why not plug the damn thing in with a cable??
J
@000000
But all three major consoles currently utilize Wireless G. The 360's wireless N is in the works, but it's not out yet.
finally some sense - had to drill two holes for my cat6 but i would never even consider wifi for gaming or straming
Yeah, I think the wireless console is pretty overrated myself. I thought it was funny reading Konami's flowchart for getting Metal Gear Online up and running, every wireless scenario ends in "You really should get a wired connection. It's a lot more stable." I've got my Xbox360 and PS3 wired, and I don't have connectivity problems. Using a Gig-E network is also a much better idea for streaming vids from a media server. I've noticed a lot less lag on the PS3 since going to wired.
Hey asshole, I use wifi with my 360 all the time. I don't get lag often. I use my wifi to stream hd (obviously compressed) to my laptops. Wifi should be included, arguing otherwise is extremely foolish.
http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=102&cp_id=10208&cs_id=1020814&p_id=147&seq=1&format=2
LOL!! Your comment is too funny.
Shouldn't it read: "Two Games Included For Free"? I mean, including "two free games" isn't much of a boon, is it?
Only a matter of time since Playstation is campaigning big time right now with the $299.00 deal. Totally sucks for people who already bought the games included in the package though!
If you already have the game then why would you need an Xbox 360?
I FREAKING HEARD THAT !! GIVE US THE WIRELESS ADAPTER!!!! FOR GODS SAKES !
like caps lock much?
It is cruise control for cool, after all, Scott...
I am digging the controller bundle. A regular wireless controller is $50 but for $10 I can get 4 games I would like but haven't bought yet. Plus I need a third controller.
Being this is an elite you also get back 50 bucks correct from the mal in rebate?
yep here is te link for anyone picking this up in the next couple days!
http://www.xbox.com/en-US/hardware/360eliterebate/default.htm
What are the changes of finding one of these in the stores before the $50 MIR expires on Monday?
I only say that because I have heard of a lot of instances where people have had to return their consoles for various reasons (i.e. red ring of death or just broken, etc.) and for whatever reason they do not receive new consoles from Microsoft as promised. I've had to return my console several times so it has never happened to me persee, but they end up having to buy a new one. On a grand scheme $299.00 is a great price point, but for people who have already purchased the games included for $40-$60, the savings are not as high I guess.
Lego Batman and Pure, AWESOME!!!
Best Buy Pricematched the MicroCenter $50 gift card and I mailed off my Microsoft $50 rebate today
Awesome! 120GB Elite 360 (Jasper 65nmCPU/GPU), Lego Batman, and Pure for $199
thankfully my local Best Buy got these in yesterday.
This pack is very interesting.
I think that's an awesome price, especially for a Starter Pack. However, I'm a bit partial to Playstation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1p-Hu3FkAGU
Screw the MS wireless adapter, i got a linksys wireless n router for $35 from buy.com and the linksys wireless n game adapter for $35 from woot the other day. Batman was a decent game, never played pure. Decent bundle and with the $50 rebates till next week its a great deal. Wonder if dell will be selling these since they have elites for $250 after promo code, throw in the rebate and you got an elite for the same price as the Wii.
The controller bundle couldn't have been timed any better. The nub's on my thumb-sticks have just about finished rubbing off. A new controller feels so comfortable in comparison to a heavily used one...
As for the WiFi vs Wired debate that I keep seeing, it's really a matter of convenience. After I got a second 360 and wired it to my router, coming from the old 20GB model with a WiFi adapter, I hardly noticed a big difference in performance, even after swapping routers and whatnot. I'd say at the most, the WiFi-equipped Xbox is of course going to be a tad slower, but I can't notice it, even on the giant HDTV it's hooked up to. Ever since the NXE, things have been great.
Don`t know about other places but in best buy Canada, we have a bundle elite which comes with Halo 3 and wifi adapter bundled with the HDMI version of the elite ( the one that comes with the HD Cables) for $329 CAD.
I snagged last week a new Jasper Elite with Halo 3, free Wifi and the Bourne and Spiderman games at Bestbuy as the $329 bundle. But now it seems the only Halo 3 bundles are for the old elites.